Politics & Government

City Council to Hold Redistricting Hearing Tuesday

The process will be a result of the 2010 U.S. Census data.

The process of redistricting Philadelphia is underway, as City Council will be holding a hearing 10:30 a.m. Tuesday on the issue.

According to an agenda for the meeting, Council’s Committee of the Whole will hear testimony concerning “the redrawing of Council District boundaries to incorporate the results of the 2010 U.S. Census.”

Every ten years, Council has the opportunity to consider the boundaries of the city’s districts based on the population findings of the census. The 2010 U.S. Census showed that districts in the Northwest are uniformly under the 150,000 residents desired in a council district. According to the Committee of Seventy, that number is arrived at by dividing the city’s population of approximately 1.5 million residents into ten districts.

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The 8th District, according to reports from CBS and The Philadelphia City Paper, is about 13,000 residents below the targeted population for the district, and the 4th District is about 10,000 short.

While the census data points to a need for redistricting, some, including the Committee of Seventy, have criticized City Council’s approach to the process.

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“Holding one public hearing in City Hall – less than one month before a redistricting plan must be in place – essentially says to the public ‘we really don’t care what you think,’” said Ellen Mattleman Kaplan, Seventy’s Vice President and Policy Director, in a press release.

Philadelphia’s Home Rule Charter requires Council to complete a citywide redistricting plan by six months after the publication of the city’s census data. This year, the deadline is Sept. 9.


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